THE 

HOBO  PHILOSOPHER 

(The  Philosopher  of  the  Hobo  Life) 


or 


The  Message  of  Economic  Freedom 

by 
ROGER  PAYNE,  B.  A.,  LL.  B. 


Why  work  six  days  a  week  when  you 
can  get  your  living  by  working  one  ? 

EIGHTH  REVISED  EDITION 
PRICE  TEN  CENTS 


Pamphlet  Collection 
Duke  University  Library 

THE    MOTIVE 


We  are  living  in  a  world  where  it  ought  to  be  pos- 
sible for  everyone  to  get  the  necessary  food,  clothing, 
and  shelter  easily  and  quickly.  We  have  ample  re- 
sources of  timber,  coal,  oil  and  agricultural  lands  to 
supply  all  our  needs.  Modern  machinery  enables  us 
to  do  our  work  largely  by  power  derived  from  coal, 
oil  or  waterfall.  Yet  the  great  mass  of  people  are 
working  all  their  lines  to  get  a  living,  and  many  even 
lack  the  necessaries  of  life. 

In  a  Democracy  such  conditions  can  only  exist 
while  the  majority  remain  in  ignorance  of  the  pos- 
sibilities of  modern  industry.  Lester  F.  Ward,  in  his 
"Applied  Sociology"  sums  up  the  whole  matter  by 
saying  that  if  a  man  wants  to  help  the  human  family, 
he  should  devote  his  life  to  spreading  among  the 
people  some  of  the  accumulation  of  knowledge  on 
Sociology  and  Economics  which  we  have  in  our  Col- 
leges and  Universities.  Such  is  the  aim  of  the 
author  in  writing  and  distributing  this  little  book. 

The  development  of  modern  civilization  is  held 
back  largely  because  most  people  spend  all  their 
lives  working,  and  have  no  time  for  education  and 
the  higher  things  of  life.  We  ought,  however,  to  get 
our  living  working  very  little,  if  we  only  went  about 
it  in  the  right  way.  One  day  a  week  or  about  fifty 
days  in  the  year  should  supply  all  our  needs.  Thus 
the  greater  part  of  our  time  would  be  set  free  for 
developing  a  race  of  men  capable  of  supporting  a 
higher  and  better  civilization  than  the  world  has 
ever  seen  before. 


PHILOSOPHY 

Philosophy  is  an  inquiry  into  the  meaning  of  life. 
Its  practical  aim  to  to  teach  us  to  live  better  lives. 
While  most  of  the  philosophy  of  antiquity  is  value- 
lees  because  not  based  on  fact,  yet  we  have  received 
from  the  ancient  Greeks  two  great  principles  both 
valuable  for  the  study  in  this  book. 

1.  To  accept  no  institution  or  idea,  however 
ancient  or  venerable  it  may  be,  but  to  inquire  into 
everything;  to  test  all  by  truth  or  merit.  This  is 
known  as  the  Socratic  method,  and  for  applying 
this  to  the  customs  and  traditions  of  his  age, 
Socrates  was  compelled  to  drink  the  cup  of  hem- 
lock. The  use  of  this  method  in  recent  times  has 
laid  the  foundation  of  modern  science,  with  its  tre- 
mendous gifts  to  mankind:  steam,  electricity,  tele- 
graphs, telephones,  automobiles  and  aeroplanes. 
Yet  for  applying  the  same  method  to  our  social  in- 
stitutions, right  here  in  America  today,  men  are 
being  persecuted,  jailed  and  murdered.  When  we 
do,  similar  great  advances  may  be  expected,  as  in 
our  industrial  life.  War,  millionaires,  poverty, 
crime,  and  many  other  evils  will  be  abolished,  but 
the  greatest  advance  of  all  will  be  the  emancipation 
of  the  worker  from  the  slavery  of  the  job. 

2.  The  application  of  this  principle  to  the  things 
which  we  use  in  our  daily  life.  A  little  thought  will 
enable  us  to  distinguish  those  things  which  are  nec- 
essary to  man's  welfare  and  happiness  from  those 
which  are  merely  a  matter  of  custom  or  prejudice. 
Most  of  the  so-called  luxuries  and  comforts  of  life 
are  but  counters   (i.  e.,  counterfeit  coins)   for  which 


we  have  been  taught  to  sacrifice  our  true  inherit- 
ance of  dignity  and  leisure.  By  eliminating  these 
we  can  minimize  our  needs  so  as  to  have  to  spend 
very  little  time  in  the  money-making  pursuits  of 
farm,  factory  or  market  place  and  so  have  the 
maximum  time  for  the  pleasure  of  real  living.  To 
demonstrate  this  principle  the  Philosopher  Diogenes 
used  to  go  about  the  country  simply  attired,  eating 
plain  foods,  and  sleeping  sometimes  on  the  porches 
of  temples  and  sometimes  carrying  with  him  a 
barrel  to  sleep  in. 

THOREAU'S     EXPERIMENT 

To  find  out  exactly  how  long  it  is  necessary  for 
a  man  to  work  to  get  his  living,  David  Henry 
Thoreau,  the  greatest  philosopher  that  America  has 
produced,  went  into  the  woods  by  Walden  Pond. 
He  there  cleared  a  piece  of  ground,  built  himself 
a  hut  and  made  his  living  by  growing  beans,  pota- 
toes, corn,  etc.,  producing  enough  for  his  own  wants 
and  a  surplus  to  exchange  for  the  things  he  needed 
to  buy.  He  tells  us  at  the  end  of  his  experiment, 
"For  more  than  five  years  I  have  maintained  my- 
self thus  solely  by  the  labor  of  my  hands,  and  I 
found  that  by  working  about  six  weeks  in  the  year 
I  could  meet  all  expenses  of  living."  This  is  a 
little  less  than  fifty  days  or  about  one  day  a  week. 

One  of  the  most  sacred  experiences  the  writer 
has  ever  had  was  at  Walden  Pond,  when  he  added 
one  stone  to  the  cairn  of  rocks  that  is  rising  on 
the  ground  where  the  hut  of  the  sage  stood.  This 
cairn  is  a  fitting  monument  to  a  rugged  character, 
the  value  of  whose  tDachings  the  world  today  is 
only  beginning  to  learn. 

—  3  — 


THE    AUTHOR'S    EXPERIMENT 

Before  knowing  of  the  work  of  Thoreau  the 
writer  had  been  making  a  similar  experiment,  but 
not  in  the  woods  as  a  hermit,  but  on  the  highway 
among  the  Hobos.  The  experiment  started  some- 
what accidentally  out  of  a  hike  from  Los  Angeles 
to  San  Francisco  to  visit  the  Fair  in  1915.  Observ- 
ing numerous  camps  of  Hobos  along  the  road,  his 
interest  was  aroused.  After  visiting  the  Fair  he 
determined  to  find  out  something  about  them.  For 
this  purpose  he  went  into  the  Sacramento  Valley, 
where  he  lived  in  the  "jungles"  and  worked  picking 
grapes,  peaches  and  hops.  In  about  twenty-five 
days  considerably  more  than  enough  was  earned  to 
pay  all  the  expenses  of  a  trip  lasting  over  four 
months.  This  trip  included  a  visit  to  Yosemite 
Valley,  the  climb  of  Mount  Lassen,  our  only  active 
volcano,  and  was  continued  as  far  north  as  Crater 
Lake,  Oregon. 

Returning  to  Los  Angeles,  a  longer  trip  was 
commenced  which  led  ultimately  right  across  the 
continent  to  Boston.  No  work  was  done  on  the 
journey  to  New  Orleans.  Between  New  Orleans 
and  Chicago  strawberry  picking  was  followed  for 
about  two  months,  the  berries  being  followed  north 
as  they  ripened.  Arriving  at  Chicago,  several  days' 
work  was  done  digging  ditches  for  the  People's  Gas 
Company.  A  move  was  then  made  to  Columbus, 
Wisconsin,  where  about  three  weeks'  work  was 
done  in  a  pea  cannery.  A  few  days'  work  was 
done  on  building  jobs  at  Buffalo  and  at  Boston. 

After    these    strenuous    days    it    was    decided    to 

—  4  — 


Winter  with  the  millionaires  in  Florida.  The  jour* 
ney  south  was  made  along  the  Atlantic  Coast  and 
extended  as  far  as  Palm  Beach  and  Miami.  The 
return  was  made  around  the  north  of  Lake  Ocho- 
chobee  to  Tampa,  and  thence  around  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  to  New  Orleans.  From  here  a  route  was 
taken  through  the  Allegheny  Mountains,  passing 
Birmingham,  Chattanooga,  Bristol,  Knoxville,  and 
through  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  thence  by  way  of 
Philadelphia  and  New  York  to  Boston.  On  this 
trip  Only  a  few  days'  work  was  done,  the  expenses 
being  paid  out  of  savings  made  the  previous  sum- 
mer. Several  involuntary  visits  were  made  to 
southern  jails  and  on  one  occasion  the  writer  had 
to  serve  twenty  days  on  a  negro  chain-gang  for 
the  crime  of  being  a  "walking  tourist." 

This  trip  completed  about  two  years'  wanderings, 
the  whole  expense  of  which  was  paid  by  working 
about  one  hundred  days  as  recorded  here.  Thus  the 
writer  demonstrated  that  it  is  possible,  living  the  life 
of  the  Hobos,  and  working  as  they  work  to  get  one's 
living  by  working  about  fifty  days  in  the  year  or 
one  day  a  week.  This  idea  the  author  sometimes 
calls  the  Hobo  Philosophy;  and  as  he  goes  through 
the  country  teaching  it  he  is  sometimes  called  the 
"Hobo    Philosopher." 

The  period  of  the  experiment  was  the  two  years 
previous  to  the  entry  of  America  into  the  World 
War.  Work  was  usually  easily  obtainable  but  wages 
were  low,  averaging  about  two  and  a  half  dollars 
a  day.  By  cooking  one's  meals  at  a  camp  fire 
"jungling  up"  a  careful  man  could  live  well  on 
thirty   cents    a   day.     With   flour   at   eight   cents   a 

—  5  — 


pound,  a  little  baking  powder  and  a  rind  of  bacon 
to  grease  the  pan,  sufficient  flapjacks  for  a  meal 
could  be  made  for  five  cents.  With  rolled  oats  at 
six  cents  a  pound,  some  canned  milk  and  a  little 
sugar,  enough  mush  for  a  meal  can  be  had  for 
about  six  cents.  With  beans  at  ten  cents  a  pound, 
and  a  little  salt-pork  and  onion  and  bread,  a  sub- 
stantial meal  can  be  made  for  ten  cents.  With  ten 
cents'  worth  of  meat,  some  potatoes,  onion  and 
bread,  two  substantial  meals  can  be  made  for  about 
thirteen  cents   each. 

As  to  outfit,  the  cooking  utensils  carried  con- 
sisted of  a  frying  pan,  which  served  as  a  plate  as 
well  as  for  frying,  one  knife,  fork  and  spoon,  one 
can  holding  about  a  pint  for  making  coffee,  two 
cans  holding  about  two  quarts,  used  for  cooking 
mulligan  beans,  rice,  fruit,  etc.  These  cans  have 
air-tight  tops,  so  that  they  can  be  used  for  carrying 
water,  and  also  as  a  tireless  cooker  by  wrapping  in  a 
sweater  while  traveling  during  the  day.  These 
things,  together  with  a  sleeping  bag,  a  change  of 
underclothes  and  a  few  sundries  are  carried  in  a 
Canadian  pack-bag  similar  to  that  used  by  the 
Alaskan  miners.  The  whole  outfit  including  a 
week's  supply  of  food  will  weigh  forty  pounds. 
Without  food  and  cooking  utensils,  fifteen  pounds. 
The  sleeping  bag  is  just  a  woolen  quilt  sewn  up  in 
the  form  of  a  bag.  It  slips  inside  another  bag 
made  of  balloon  silk,  in  order  to  keep  it  dry.  In 
cold  weather  another  bag  made  out  of  a  light  blan- 
ket is  slipped  inside  the  quilt.  In  very  cold  weather 
a  fire  is  necessary  at  night.  On  a  wet  night  the 
open  porch  of  a  church  or  school  or  any  other  dry 

—  6  — 


place  is  used  to  spread  the  bag.  The  carrying  of  a 
tent  "was  early  abandoned,  as  it  was  usually  found 
easier  on  a  wet  night  to  find  a  dry  place  to  spread 
one's  bed,  than  to  pitch  a  tent.  As  for  clothes  a 
complete  outfit  of  khaki  clothes  with  boots  and 
underclothes  can  be  bought  for  about  twenty  dol- 
lars. This  with  about  the  same  amount  for  repairs 
and  replacements  will  last  a  year.  An  expense  of 
about  ten  cents  a  day. 

Thus  far  we  have  seen  that  if  a  man  is  willing 
to  reduce  his  wants  to  somewhere  near  his  needs, 
he  can  get  his  living  by  working  about  one  day  a 
week.  Such  a  life,  however,  is  used  here  rather  to 
teach  a  lesson  from  than  to  urge  its  practice.  It 
can  be  used,  however,  by  the  individual  as  a  means 
of  escape  from  the  slavery  of  the  job,  but  its  ap- 
plication to  the  whole  of  society  under  modern 
conditions  is  not  possible.  The  solution  socially, 
however,  will  need  a  little   study  in 

ECONOMICS 

Economics  is  the  science  which  deals  with  the 
production  and  distribution  of  wealth.  What  answer 
has  this  science  to  the  question:  Why  do  the 
majority  of  mankind  spend  all  their  time  in  the 
struggle  for  food,  clothing  and  shelter,  thus  living 
in  a  hopeless,  grinding  slavery  to  the  mere  cost  of 
existence? 

When  men  had  nothing  but  hand  tools  to  work 
with,  they  were  easily  able  to  produce  enough  to 
maintain  themselves,  and  a  few  others  who  did  no 
work  such  as  the  King,  the  nobility  and  the  priest- 
hood. In  recent  times  the  introduction  of  ma- 
chinery has  tremendously  increased  the  productivity 

-•7— . 


of  human  labor.  Kropotkin,  in  his  "Conquest  ot 
Bread,"  tells  us  that  one  hundred  men,  working 
two  or  three  months  with  modern  machinery  can 
produce  enough  bread  to  feed  ten  thousand  people 
for  a  year;  that  one  hundred  men  working  in  a 
modern  factory  can  produce  enough  clothing  for 
ten  thousand  people  for  two  years;  that  one  hun- 
dred miners  can  produce  enough  coal  for  ten  thou- 
sand families.  Logically,  this  increased  productivity 
(conservatively  estimated  as  ten-fold)  ought  to  have 
materially  shortened  the  hours  of  human  labor. 
Yet,  notwithstanding  this,  the  great  mass  of  the 
human  family  are  today  working  harder  and  longer 
than  they  did  before   any  machinery   existed. 

The  heart  of  our  trouble  today  lies  in  our  having 
allowed  private  ownership  in  the  big  industries  of 
the  country.  Under  such  conditions  the  workers 
are  compelled  in  order  to  live  to  sell  their  labor 
power,  and  for  this  commodity  they  will  receive,  as 
is  paid  for  every  other  commodity,  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction, i.  e.,  enough  money  to  buy  sufficient  food, 
clothing  and  shelter,  to  live  and  reproduce  their 
kind.  The  Iron  Law  of  Wages.  All  that  the  work- 
ers produce  beyond  this  must  go  to  the  owners. 
Hence  the  increased  productivity  brought  about  by 
modern  machinery,  has  gone  not  to  the  workers, 
but  to  the  owners  of  the  machinery,  and  will  con- 
tinue so  to  go,  so  long  as  we  allow  private  owner- 
ship of  the  socially  used  means  of  production. 

As  a  business  proposition  the  American  people 
(and  they  pride  themselves  on  their  business  abil- 
ity) ought  immediately,  by  the  right  of  "Eminent 
Domain"  to  take  over  the  properties  owned  by  the 


great  industrial  combinations,  ,  giving  the  present 
owners  bonds  payable  during  a  term  of  years  in 
exchange  for  them.  When  the  bondholders  are 
paid  off  the  people  would  own  these  industries  free 
from  all  incumbrances.  It  would  then  no  longer  be 
necessary  to  work  to  produce  wealth  for  the  own- 
ers and  a  tremendous  shortening  of  the  hours  of 
labor  could  be  brought  about. 

The  proportion  of  their  time  that  the  workers 
work  to  produce  wealth  for  the  owners  is  uncer- 
tain. Some  claim  that  as  high  as  eighty  per  cent 
goes  to  capital,  others  only  forty  per  cent.  A  very 
conservative  estimate  would  be  a  fifty-fifty  division 
between  capital  and  labor.  If  this  is  correct  then 
the  workers  work  three  days  a  week  to  produce 
their  wages  and  three  days  to  produce  wealth  for 
the  owners.  Under  social  ownership,  other  things 
remaining  the  same,  the  hours  of  labor  could  be 
reduced  from  six  to  three  days  a  week. 

This  reform  having  been  completed,  considerable 
additional  saving  in  the  hours  of  labor  could  be 
expected  from  two  different   sources. 

1.    Increased   efficiency,   such  as: 

(a)  The  abandonment  of  many  of  the  most  in- 
efficient plants,  and  the  working  of  the  efficient 
plants   continuously  by  shifts   of  men. 

(b)  The  replacing  of  human  labor  by  machinery 
wherever  possible. 

(c)  The  converting  of  our  coal  into  power  and 
gas   right   in  the  mines. 

(d)  The  development  of  all  the  water  power  of 
the  country,  of  which  only  about  seven  per  cent 
is   developed   today. 

—  9  — . 


(e)  The  electrification  of  all  the  railroads.  It  is 
estimated  that  a  saving  of  at  least  half  the  labor 
would  thereby  be  made. 

(f)  The  abandonment  of  our  existing  chaotic 
method  of  distribution  of  products,  with  its  multi- 
tude of  jobbers,  commission  men  and  wholesalers, 
advertising  and  traveling  men,  together  with  the 
millions  of  wasteful  competitive  stores,  and  replac- 
ing them  by  "Consumers  Cooperatives"  obtaining 
supplies  direct  from  farm  and  factory,  and  distrib- 
uting  direct  to   consumers. 

These  and  many  other  improvements  which  could 
be  suggested  ought  easily  to  increase  efficiency  by 
one-third.  Thus  the  hours  of  labor  already  reduced 
to  three  per  week  could  be  further  reduced  to  two. 

2.  Putting  everybody  to  productive  work.  About 
one-half  of  the  people  above  ten  years  of  age  re- 
ported themselves  as  having  no  occupation  at  the 
last  U.  S.   census.     They  consist  of  several  groups: 

(a)  Millionaires — few  in  number — but  maintaining 
armies  of  men  and  women  to  attend  to  their  wants; 
to  build  and  maintain  palaces,  hotels,  yachts,  auto- 
mobiles,  etc.;    to   clothe,   feed   and   amuse   them. 

(b)  The  ordinary  "tired"  bum  as  distinguished 
from  the  former,  the  "rubber-tired"  bum,  the  man 
who  will  not  work  if  he  could,  preferring  to  get  his 
living  by  begging  or   crime. 

(c)  The  unemployed  worker,  willing  to  work  but 
unable  to  find  it.  Under  our  wage  system  of  in- 
dustry there  must  be,  except  in  periods  of  unusual 
activity,  a  reserve  army  of  unemployed  workers. 

(d)  The  army  of  men  who  work  but  not  pro- 
ductively.    Some  are  just  paiasites,  exploiting  the 

—  10- 


workers  of  the  community,  some  doing  destructive 
work.  Soldiers,  sailors,  preachers,  politicians,  law- 
yers, policemen,  etc. 

(e)  The  women  also  should  do  their  share  of  the 
productive  work  of  the  world,  except  of  course 
when  child-bearing  or  child-rearing. 

It  is  evident  that  if  everybody  were  engaged  in 
productive  work  the  numbers  of  workers  would  be 
doubled  and  thus  the  hours  of  labor  already  reduced 
to  two  days  a  week  could  be  reduced  to  one. 

THE    EFFICIENCY    ENGINEER 

There  has  grown  up  in  recent  years  a  new  pro- 
fession, the  efficiency  expert  or  engineer.  Three 
of  the  best  known  of  these  men  are  perhaps  Messrs. 
F.  W.  Taylor,  H.  L.  Gantt  and  Walter  N.  Polakov. 
At  first  these  men  directed  their  efforts  to  making 
the  workers  more  efficient,  as  for  instance  by  teach- 
ing bricklayers  to  lay  brick  with  the  least  number 
of  motions  possible.  This  was,  however,  soon 
abandoned  as  it  was  found  that  the  amount  of  time 
so  lost  was  as  nothing  compared  with  what  was 
lost  by  managerial  inefficiency.  The  writer  had  the 
fortune  to  attend  a  course  of  lectures  by  Mr.  Pola- 
kov in  which  among  many  other  things  he  gave  a 
report  of  a  survey  of  existing  American  machinery 
made  by  him  in  conjunction  with  Mr.  Gantt.  They 
found  that  half  the  existing  machinery  was  idle  all 
the  time,  and  the  other  half  working  about  half 
time  or  at  half  efficiency.  He  gave  it  as  his 
opinion  that  American  industry  is  seventy-five  per 
cent  inefficient;  that  we  were  producing  only  about 
a  quarter  of  what  we  could  produce;  that  if  we  did 
not   want   more   than  we   are   producing   today,   we 

—  11  — 


ought  to  produce  it  by  working  a  fourth  of  the  time 
we  work  or  about  one  day  and  a  half  a  week.  If 
efficiency  could  reduce  the  hours  of  labor  this  much 
the  putting  of  all  the  idle  to  work  could  easily 
reduce  it  to  one  day  a  week.  Thus  we  get  back 
again  by  way  of  the  "Efficiency  Engineer"  to  our 
original  proposition,  that  instead  of  working  six 
days  a  week  we  could  get  our  living  with  modern 
machinery  used  efficiently,  by  working  about  one 
day  a  week  or  fifty  days   in  the  year. 

SOME     QUESTIONS 

1.  Can  a  man  support  a  wife  and  family  by 
working   one    day    a   week? 

Yes;  but  a  little  foresight  is  necessary  before 
marriage,  instead  of  the  hindsight  that  most  people 
use  after. 

The  best  method  I  know  for  a  man  with  a  wife 
and  family  is  to  get  one  or  two  acres  of  land  near 
a  city,  build  a  home,  plant  fruit  and  nut  trees,  grow 
vegetables  enough  for  family  use.  To  produce 
enough  surplus  to  exchange  for  those  things  need- 
ed from  the  outside  some  special  line  should  be 
taken  up  such  as  poultry,  bees,  hares,  mushrooms, 
flowers,  or  nursery  work.  A  few  pleasant  hours' 
work  daily,  averaging  about  fifty  days  a  year  by 
both  husband  and  wife,  should  easily  supply  all 
needs.  But  it  may  be  objected,  this  would  need 
at  least  two  thousand  dollars.  Yes,  indeed!  The 
man  who  has  not  got  the  ability  and  thrift  to  save 
two  thousand  dollars  has  no  business  raising  a 
family.  He  shows  his  mentality  to  be  that  of  a 
child  of  twelve  years  old  or  less,  and  ought  not  to 

—  12  — 


be  allowed  to  reproduce  the  human  race.  Improvi- 
dent marriages  on  the  Dollar  Down  and  Dollar  a 
Week  plan  are  the  bane   of  America  today. 

2.  How  could  the  work  of  a  farm  be  done  by 
working   one    day   a   week? 

Farming  is  today  the  most  backward  industry. 
The  farmer  is  still  trailing  across  the  field  behind 
a  mule,  while  a  great  waterfall  is  going  to  waste 
in  the  distance  which  could  be  doing  his  ploughing 
for  him.  Henry  Ford  is  teaching  the  farmers  how 
to  get  their  living  by  working  thirty  days  a  year 
with  a  tractor.  In  the  future  the  staple  crops  will 
be  grown  cooperatively,  over  great  tracts  of  country 
work  by  electrically  driven  machinery.  Gangs  of 
men  will  go  out  from  their  homes  during  the  farm- 
ing season,  each  man  working  about  fifty  days  in 
the  year.  Many  small  farms  will  of  course  sur- 
vive, but  they  will  be  homes  rather  than  commer- 
cial undertakings. 

3.  How  could  a  store  keeper  get  his  living  by 
working    one   day   a  week? 

It  will  be  done  when  all  the  store  keepers  in  a 
particular  business  learn  to  cooperate  to  do  their 
business  instead  of  fight  each  other  in  doing  it. 
They  could  then  abandon  the  greater  number  of 
their  stores,  and  do  the  same  business  better  in  the 
remaining  stores  with  perhaps  one-sixth  of  the 
labor.  The  multitude  of  small  competitive  stores 
today  are  mostly  parasitic.  They  are  gradually 
being  eliminated  by  the  big  department  stores  in 
America,  and  by  the  cooperative  stores  in  Europe. 
Today,  they  are  mostly  traps  for  separating  some 
foolish    worker    from    his    lifetime    savings. 

—  13  — 


CONCLUSION 

Sufficient  has  now  been  said  to  demonstrate  that 
it  is  not  necessary  for  a  man  to  work  all  his  life 
to  get  a  living.  Thoreau's  experiment  by  Walden 
Pond,  the  author's  experiment  among  the  Hobos, 
the  teachings  of  economics,  reinforced  by  the  opin- 
ion of  the  Efficiency  Engineers,  all  go  to  show  that 
a  man  can  get  his  living  by  working  about  one 
day  a  week  or  fifty  days  in  the  year,  and  that  as  a 
result  of  education  we  shall  all  do  so  ultimately. 
When  that  day  comes  we  shall  all  have  time  for 
real  living,  time  to  read,  think,  study  and  learn 
something  of  this  wonderful  world  in  which  we 
live;  time  to  travel  and  enjoy  some  of  its  beauties; 
time  to  cultivate  a  hobby,  worth  while,  such  as  art, 
drama,  music,  painting,  sculpture;  time  for  religion, 
and  even  time  for  play. 

But  it  may  be  objected  that  spare  time  for  most 
people  would  only  be  time  for  idleness  and  vice. 
Mental  tests  applied  to  the  men  drafted  in  the  war, 
showed  that  about  half  of  them  had  the  mentality 
of  a  child  of  twelve  years  old  or  less.  Such  men 
are  incapable  of  culture,  and  spare  time  to  them 
would  mean  idleness  and  vice.  Social  welfare  work 
should  be  organized  to  teach  them  to  make  the  best 
use  of  their  time.  In  the  future,  however,  this 
class  of  people  should  be  eliminated  by  preventing 
them  reproducing  their  kind.  Today  they  are  re- 
producing freely,  whilst  the  more  intelligent  limit 
their  families,  resulting  in  degeneration  of  the  race. 
In  Europe  this  problem  has  led  to  the  development 
of  two  classes,  one  of  low  mentality,  working  all 
the  time  to  get  a  living,  the   other  of  higher  men- 

—  14  — 


tality  who  mostly  do  not  work  to  get  a  living,  but 
devote  their  time  to  those  things  comprised  under 
the  general  term  of  culture.  Today,  when  a  man 
can  do  as  much  work  with  a  machine  as  one  hun- 
dred men  could  do  with  their  hands  in  the  past, 
there  is  no  need  for  a  "working  class."  If  we 
would  eliminate  the  mentally  deficient  we  could 
build  up  in  America  a  civilization  such  as  the  world 
has  never  seen  before,  not  built  on  "slavery"  as 
in  ancient  Greece,  nor  on  a  "working  class"  as  in 
Europe  today,  but  built  on  the  principle  that  every- 
one doing  his  share  of  the  necessary  work  of  the 
world,  should  have  time  and  opportunity  for  culture. 
RECENT    TRAVELS 

Since  the  journeys  spoken  of  in  the  earlier  part 
of  this  book,  the  writer  has  made  several  trans- 
continental   hikes. 

The  first  from  Boston  to  Los  Angeles  opened  with 
a  trip  through  New  England,  in  which  the  coast 
was  followed  as  far  as  Mount  Desert  Island,  thence 
across  the  White  and  Green  Mountains  to  Lake 
Champlain.  Then  south,  around  Lake  George 
through  the  Berkshires  back  to  Boston.  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  Pittsburgh,  St.  Louis,  Kansas  City, 
Dallas,  El  Paso,  Phoenix,  Yuma,  San  Diego,  show 
the  general  route  taken  to  Los  Angeles.  Many  of 
the  beauty  spots  of  New  England  were  visited. 
Some  pretty  scenery  was  noticed  crossing  the  Alle- 
gheny Mountains.  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  gave 
the  added  interest  of  desert  travel.  This  trip 
lasted  about  eight  months,  covering  about  five 
thousand  miles. 

The  second  trip  was  from  California  to  New  York. 
Leaving  Los  Angeles  in  June  the  summer  was  spent 
—  15  — 


in  the  Sierra-Nevada  and  Rocky  Mountains.  Yose- 
mite  Park  "was  visited,  Mount  Dana  climbed  and 
Lake  Tahoe  circled,  all  in  the  Sierras.  After  cross- 
ing Nevada  and  Idaho,  Yellowstone  Park  with  its 
wonderful  geysers  and  the  Rocky  Mountain  Na- 
tional Park  were  visited.  The  fall  was  spent  trav^ 
eling  through  Colorado,  Texas  and  Louisiana  to 
New  Orleans.  From  here  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  was 
followed  to  Florida,  where  the  extreme  point  vis- 
ited during  the  winter  was  Fort  Meyers.  The 
spring  travel  was  through  the  Southern  States, 
Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Tennessee,  and  Ken- 
tucky, whilst  the  summer  was  spent  wandering 
through  Indiana,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  and  New 
Jersey.  The  journey  was  completed  on  the  arrival 
in  New  York  in  the  fall. 

Spending  the  winter  in  New  York  the  start  of  the 
third  trip  was  made  in  May.  The  coast  was  followed 
east  as  far  as  Boston,  and  then  turning  west 
across  the  Berkshires,  Albany  was  visited.  The 
general  direction  of  the  Mohawk  River  was  fol- 
lowed to  Buffalo,  thence  south  of  the  Great  Lakes 
to  Chicago.  The  latter  was  left  late  in  the  fall  and 
a  bee  line  made  for  New  Orleans.  The  spring  was 
spent  wandering  through  Louisiana,  Texas,  Okla- 
homa, Arkansas,  Kansas,  and  Missouri.  The  sum- 
mer was  spent  visiting  Chicago,  Milwaukee,  Minne- 
apolis, Des  Moines,  Omaha  City,  Kansas  City  and 
the  intervening  country.  The  winter  was  spent  in 
Kansas,  Oklahoma,  Texas,  New  Mexico,  Arizona, 
and  California,  arriving  in  Los  Angeles  early  in 
January.  This  trip  covered  about  ten  thousand 
miles,    and    lasted   twenty   months. 

—  16  — 


The  next  trip,  commencing  at  Los  Angeles,  was 
up  the  Pacific  Coast  as  far  as  Vancouver,  B.  C.  The 
main  road  was  followed,  visiting  San  Francisco, 
Oakland,  Sacramento,  Portland  and  Seattle.  Early 
in  May  a  start  was  made  from  Vancouver,  across 
Canada.  Following  the  Frazer  River  to  the  moun- 
tains, several  ranges  were  crossed,  leading  success- 
ively to  the  valleys  of  the  Okanagan,  Kettle  and 
Columbia  Rivers.  The  latter  was  crossed  at  the  out- 
let of  the  Arrow  Lakes.  From  here  the  general  direc- 
tion of  the  Kooteney  River  was  followed  to  Lakes 
Columbia  and  Windermere.  The  new  road  was  taken 
from  Windermere  to  Banff,  and  thence  on  to  Calgary. 
The  scenery  along  the  border  was  much  appreciated, 
but  the  Canadian  Rockies,  although  very  beautiful, 
did  not  come  up  to  expectations.  Good  roads  were 
found  on  all  this  part  of  the  trip  except  the  first  cross- 
ing of  the  Cascades  from  Hope  to  Princeton,  which 
was  made  by  trail,  and  from  Nelson  to  Kooteney 
Landing,  which  had  to  be  made  by  boat.  On  the  prai- 
ries besides  Calgary,  Edmonton,  Saskatoon,  Moose 
Jaw,  Regina  and  Winnipeg,  were  visited.  From  the 
latter,  to  avoid  the  bad  travel  through  Northern  On- 
tario, the  route  was  partly  in  Canada  and  partly 
through  North  Dakota,  Minnesota,  Wisconsin  and 
Michigan.  Grand  Forks,  Fargo,  Duluth,  Port  Arthur, 
Houghton,  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  Bay  City  and  Port  Huron 
will  show  the  route  taken  to  Southern  Ontario,  where 
Toronto  was  reached  in  November.  Spending  the 
winter  resting  and  studying  in  Philadelphia  and 
Washington,  a  return  was  made  to  Toronto  in  the 
spring,  where  the  journey  was  resumed  to  Ottawa, 
Montreal,  Quebec  and  Halifax,  thus  completing  the 
trip  across  Canada. 

The  writer  hopes  at  an  early  date  to  cross  the 
water,  and  after  visiting  most  of  the  European  coun- 
tries, to  hike  across  Russia  and  Siberia,  and  thus 
complete  a  trip  around  the  world. 


BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTE 

Roger  Payne,  often  called  the  Hobo  Philosopher, 
was  born  at  Aldershot,  England,  January  27,  1874. 
After  serving  an  apprenticeship  to  the  drug  trade 
and  obtaining  some  experience  as  a  clerk,  he 
studied  at  the  School  of  Pharmacy,  London.  Here 
he  became  qualified  as  a  Pharmaceutical  Chemist 
and  won  the  certificate  of  honor  in   chemistry. 

Continuing  the  study  of  science  at  Gonville  and 
Caius  College,  Cambridge,  he  obtained  a  B.  A.  de- 
gree. As  the  result  of  a  post-graduate  course  in 
law,  he  also  received  an  LL.  B.  degree.  Joining 
the  Inner  Temple  at  London,  he  became  qualified 
to  be  called  to  the  English  bar.  Desiring,  how- 
ever, a  more  out-of-door  life,  he  became  interested 
in  the  real  estate  and  contracting  business.  At  the 
same  time  he  traveled  considerably  in  England  and 
on  the  Continent  of  Europe. 

Coming  to  America  in  1908,  he  spent  seven  years 
in  building  construction  work.  Since  then  he  has 
spent  his  time  traveling  and  teaching  as  recorded 
in  this   book. 


Published  by  the  Author  at  Fellowship  Farm, 
Puente,  Calif.,  where  additional  copies  can  be 
obtained,  ten  cents  each,  post-paid,  or  twelve  fc» 
one    dollar. 


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